1830.] Affairs in General. 461 



peer and commoner is so marked as in England ; and^that owing to the 

 existence of those absurd and even profane addresses ( My Lord/ as 

 applied to the former ; and * your Lordship/ f your Grace/ and ' noble 

 Lords.' Foreigners are disgusted with us on this account ; and think that, 

 with the freest institutions, we are the basest people, to suffer such a distinc- 

 tion to exist in daily practice." 



The Standard scoffs at the republicanism of the idea, and ridicules 

 the learning ; saying, that in every nation in Europe titles are more in 

 use than in England, which is true, as every body must know, from the 

 rabble of Barons, Dukes, and Princes, that make their sojourn among us 

 now and then; and also that Don, Monsieur, Mynheer, Mein Herr, alike 

 mean my Lord, while the common Spanish address of listed, means 

 (( your Excellence." 



To this the Morning Chronicle rejoins, that those titles, whatever 

 they might once have meant, now mean but the simplest acknow- 

 ledgment of respect, or, in fact, mean nothing. But to this must 

 be objected, that if they mean nothing now, it is from their having 

 been first made common. There are villages in Spain where every one 

 is connected with some prince, and where prince is the title of fellows 

 that lead your horse to the stable, or set out your dinner. All the peasantry 

 of Guipuscoa, and most of the Biscayans, look upon themselves as actual 

 nobles. The commonness of the distinction has made it worthless, but 

 the plurality of titles is, of course, only the more obvious. The 

 Morning Chronicle would have it, on the contrary, that the common- 

 ness of a title extinguishes the title itself; which, we fear is a rather 

 hasty conclusion. If it had said that commonness diminishes the value, 

 or the power, or the pleasure of a title, we should, of course, agree with 

 it. The fact is, that the taste of foreigners for giving titles is so great, 

 that they have long ago supped full of the indulgence; they have now run 

 out their stock, and have left themselves nothing untouched by the 

 vulgar hand, but king and deity. It is no fault of theirs if the language 

 of titles is limited, and that, when they come up to prince they must stop. 

 Certainly, so far as they may use those marks of honour they have used 

 them to their heart's content ; and in Italy, and Germany, princes are 

 as thick as mulberries, and by no means so valuable to the community. 



Foreigners then have no right " to call the English the basest people, 

 with the freest institutions ;" for the difference between a title in 

 England, and one on the Continent, is no more than that the English 

 one is a demand upon public respect, because our titles are compari- 

 tively so few, while the foreign is seldom a demand upon any body's 

 respect, because foreigners have been in the habit of giving them to so 

 many. 



But there is no necessity for all this wrath at a practice which has 

 grown out of the necessities of society. There must be in all kingdoms 

 rewards for eminent merit, in war, politics, legislation, and the other 

 leading forms of public service. There can be but two ways of reward 

 money or honours. What would society gain by making money the 

 sole reward? An enormous expense would be the first result the next 

 would be to infect the nation with a mercenary spirit, by making money 

 the standard of merit. But if the state had the power to pour out the 

 whole treasury in rewards, the result would still be inadequate. The ob- 

 ject is to give some exclusive mark by which the individual is elevated 

 above the general classes of the community, for his services; but money will 



